Home sweet Houston! Actually, I've been gone so long, I'm experiencing some culture shock in my own country. I went to the supermarket to get food, and everything was so expensive. I had to pretend the prices were in RMB to get myself to buy it. Yesterday I forgot to leave a tip at a restaurant, oops! But, on the upside, it's time to start planning the NEXT trip to China! There's two different trips I'm thinking of:

Trip 1-Fly into Hong Kong (I like it already!)-Take the train to Shenzhen to fly out.-Spend a couple days in Guangzhou.-Then head to the Guilin area in Guangxi, visit scenic areas of Guilin, Yangshuo, Longsheng

.-From here the usual route is into Yunnan, but since I've already been there I would head to Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province.-From Guiyang it's possible to visit several scenic attractions such as Dragon Palace Cave and Huangguoshu Waterfall, the largest waterfall in Asia. Also Guizhou is home to over 30 minority groups including the Miao, Buyi and Dong.-From here a random add-on would be to go to Changsha, capital of Hunnan province, or just go back to Guangdong.-total time: 10-12 days, plus desired time in Hong Kong

Trip 2-Start in Chengdu, and take the bus to see the giant Buddha in Leshan (since we missed it last time in Sichuan)-Move to Chongqing and hop on a Yangtze cruise-3 or 4 days on the Yangtze, ending in Wuhan probably-Next go to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui province, spend 1 or 2 nights on the summit and a day in Tunxi old town.-Nanjing for a couple days-Optional stop in Suzhou or Hangzhou-End up in Shanghai, this would be a good trip to coincide with the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai-total time: 12-14 days, plus time in Shanghai

If there is any reason to go back to Beijing for business, a nice long-weekend trip in the summer would be horseback riding in Innner Mongolia. Or in the winter or spring, skiing in Harbin. Or a weekend trip Qingdao; there will be a high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao installed for the Olympics.

So who's ready to go to China? Some people think I'm a little obsessed, but if you've ever been to China, you would understand the attraction.